Custom Immigrant Networks essay paper

Introduction

Immigration happens when an individual or a group of individuals decide to relocate from own home country to another country to become permanent residents of the foreign state. Immigration can be caused by various reasons which are classified as either push or pull factors. Pull factors are those that motivate a person towards moving to the foreign country while push factors are those that push a person away from his native country, they are usually bad reasons like unemployment, war, ethnicity, low payment rates, low living standards etc. However, for instance, the United States of America has a list of types of immigrants that can be accepted into it. They are categorized into three broad categories: immediate relative and family sponsored, employment-based, and special immigrants.

Body

There are legal, as well as illegal, immigrants in the U.S. For example, there is this family originating from Kenya. It is made up of seven members but started out by two immigrants who came to the U.S. via a green card back in 2005. After settling for two years, they invited the man’s small sister who also attained citizenship through family sponsorship. In 2008, the sister invited their small brother and lied he was their small sister’s husband. They forged the necessary documents and posed for a couple of photos that passed as wedding photos. They were just risking, it but it somehow went through and their brother joined them. The other three were just invited and are in the U.S. illegally since they do not plan to go back to Kenya any time soon.

Their sole reason for migrating to the U.S. is to escape the joblessness conditions back at Kenya and the low living standards. The value of wages in the U.S. surpasses that of their native country, too. They did it to enhance their living standards and that of their whole family at large left behind in Kenya.

The family settled in Massachusetts since that is where the first immigrants who came in via green card were settled. The others joined in and live in Massachusetts, as well. Upon arrival, they faced some problems: not finding their pace in the United States easily; it is also not easy to secure a good job, but they still hang around till they find a reasonable one; new regulations, which are more strict than in their native country; different cultural norms; finding a place to settle initially, cases of racism and others.

The major contribution they offer to the American society is labor, teaching those they interact with their national language – Swahili – and also a bit of Kenyan dishes. There are many immigrants in the U.S., who have become famous people all over the globe. For example, Albert Einstein from Germany, Sergey Brin – co-founder of Google, from Russia, also Jerry Yang – the co-founder of Yahoo – the two online businesses that thrive extremely well. There are also athletes like Olajuwon, who pays basketball and is from Nigeria, and David Beckham, who originates from England. Actors like Arnold Schwarzenegger from Austria, Jackie Chan from China and Charlize Theron from South Africa, Akon from Senegal, and Gloria Estefan from Cuba etc.

Conclusion

In conclusion, it has been noted that immigration boosts the economy through bilateral trade but that benefit disappeared ones the immigrants are swallowed into the American culture (Mundra, 2010). Despite the positive effects of immigration, majority of the cases happen illegally making it a change to the States since migration should be controlled. Mexicans have been the main immigrants into the United States for the past two decades. Now Philippines, China and India are also pushing migrants in the United States. Immigration can, therefore, be seen as a positive factor to both parties, except for cases of people with malicious intent such as terrorist.